CNG Beijing, April 25 (Reporter Zhang Shuzhuo) The China-Pakistan Friendly Mountaineering Team was officially formed in Beijing on the 24th. The team will carry out joint mountaineering activities on Pakistan’s Spantik Peak from June 15 to July 30 this year.
To further enhance exchanges and cooperation between the mountaineering circles of China and Pakistan, and to implement the directives made during the talks between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani in Islamabad in December 2010 — which called for “strengthening people-to-people exchanges across various fields, enhancing mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of the two countries, consolidating traditional friendship, developing good neighborly relations, increasing civil exchanges, and broadening the foundation of friendship” — and with the care, support, and assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Administration of Sport of China, the Chinese Mountaineering Association and the Pakistan Mountaineering Federation reached a consensus after multiple discussions and negotiations, culminating in the formation of the China-Pakistan Friendly Mountaineering Team.
The Chinese Mountaineering Association will send Minister Luo Shen from the High Altitude Exploration Department and Coach Li Fuqing to lead the team to Pakistan for this joint mountaineering activity, and to conduct exchanges on high-altitude climbing and rescue techniques.
Pakistan’s Spantik Peak is located on the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram Range, with an elevation of 7,027 meters (74°57′E, 36°26′N). It is considered a non-technical peak, suitable for climbing between May and September, and is locally known as the “Golden Mountain.” This will be the first time the mountain has been climbed by a Chinese mountaineering team.
Since the China-Pakistan Joint Mountaineering Team successfully summited Mount Everest and Nanga Parbat for the first time in 1997... ...exchanges between the mountaineering communities of the two countries have maintained strong momentum over the years. Joint teams successfully summited Broad Peak, K2, and Gasherbrum I in 2001, 2004, and 2007 respectively. These expeditions received widespread attention and support from both the mountaineering communities and the general public in China and Pakistan. In particular, the Pakistan Mountaineering Federation provided tremendous support and assistance to the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Chinese Expedition Team in their historic achievement of being the first team from China to summit all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks in the world — a monumental feat that will forever be remembered by the Chinese mountaineering community and people.
In recent years, as the Pakistan Mountaineering Federation joined the Asian Climbing Federation as a new member of the Asian climbing community, exchanges in climbing between the Chinese and Pakistani associations have increased. This year, the formation of the China-Pakistan Friendly Mountaineering Team by the mountaineering associations of the two countries to climb Spantik Peak in Pakistan aims to further consolidate the traditional friendship between the two mountaineering communities, enrich the content and forms of their exchanges, and set an exemplary model of good neighborly friendship.